Earth Day: Allbirds Goes Carbon Neutral

It can be overwhelming for me most mornings when I open Twitter to see what’s going on in the world. Besides having to worry about what kind of society my daughter will end up living in thanks to the rise in misogyny in North America, what really gives me the most anxiety is seeing people willfully ignoring the facts that scientists have brought to light regarding climate change.

But thankfully — and what I love highlighting here on the site and every time I make an appearance on The Social — is that there are brands and people out there looking to make a different when it comes to the health of our planet. I am so inspired lately by Greta Thunberg (if you don’t know her, please watch her Ted Talk here, you will be so impressed!), and also by brands like Allbirds.

In case you didn’t hear, it’s Earth Day and the American brand is making a major internal change — and I hope other brands will follow suit. Just last year Allbirds, who scored major capital from Hollywood environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio, brought a sugar cane-based rubber dubbed Sweet Foam to the market to continue to make their über comfortable sneakers more eco-friendly — and they allowed other brands access to this technology in the hopes that they would start using sugar cane instead of petroleum. Now, in 2019, they have just announced that they are going 100 percent carbon neutral thanks to the Allbirds Carbon Fund. The Carbon Fund is a self imposed carbon tax that will fund emissions reduction projects within the brands HQ and all through the supply chain — i.e. by planting trees to help capture CO2, and by building windmills to power their productions instead of burning fossil fuels.

They’ve also just launched a limited edition endangered bird shoe collection (see above for just one of the cute colourways), where 100 percent of the proceeds goes to the National Audubon Society, an American non-profit conservation foundation that was founded in 1905. The shoes come in five colours, will retail for $135, and are available here.

In summation, be like Allbirds everybody. Because really, every day is Earth Day.